


Who's prejudiced, really?

by sunshine_and_rainbows



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff and Humor, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Misunderstandings, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 01:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19189072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshine_and_rainbows/pseuds/sunshine_and_rainbows
Summary: It’s fair to say that Noah McKay wasn’t having the best day of his life. The nausea was tumbling around inside him mixed with a kaleidoscope of confusing thoughts, incredulous questions and mixed feelings. It was a bit as if both his body and mind had been thrown into a tumble dryer together with some random nightmares, lonely socks, and pages out of a fantasy novel. Trying to get his brain to grasp what had happened during the last couple of hours was a definitely a lost cause considering that he couldn’t even manage to get his stupid brain to form a single coherent thought.---A Solangelo story from a 3:rd person POV, including a jealous Nico di Angelo, an annoyingly attractive Will Solace and a poor, scared guy who gets caught in the middle...





	Who's prejudiced, really?

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by another story of a young gay demigod arriving at camp and watching the interactions of people there (especially Will&Nico), but I read it before I had an account and now I can't find it again... If you know what it was, please comment... I think he was a ballet dancer, perhaps??
> 
> *Edit* I found the story now, a little help from the author, HonorH, and it's a part of a story called "Stories of Us", which I'm happy to have found again btw. 
> 
> Also, I'm usually not a fan of non-canon pairings, so I'm sorry Mitchell & Connor if you happen to be straight or currently seeing someone else, but I needed you for the story to work, ok? ;)

 

It’s fair to say that Noah McKay wasn’t having the best day of his life. The nausea was tumbling around inside him mixed with a kaleidoscope of confusing thoughts, incredulous questions and mixed feelings. It was a bit as if both his body and mind had been thrown into a tumble dryer together with some random nightmares, lonely socks, and pages out of a fantasy novel. Trying to get his brain to grasp what had happened during the last couple of hours was a definitely a lost cause considering that he couldn’t even manage to get his stupid brain to form a single coherent thought. 

 

In a desperate attempt to stay sane, he refused to even think about the events earlier that day. Instead, he was focusing on trying to make sense of the present in a feeble attempt to keep his world believable. However, this didn’t do him much good, because there were not many things about the present he understood either. For example, he didn’t know:

 

  1. Where he was
  2. How he got there
  3. Who the dark, hot and scary guy who was carrying him bridal style over the grass in big strides was



 

Shit, dark, hot and scary that was not a good place for his mind to wander. Another wave of nausea swept over him as he remembered the weird sensation he had felt when the enchanting stranger had gripped him and his soccer coach (or, the guy he thought was his soccer coach but who had turned out to be… well, he didn’t want to go there either) and stepped into the shadows of a building and… no. That didn’t happen. Impossible.  _ Focus on the present Noah _ , he told himself and the nausea was suddenly mixed with a healthy dose of humiliation. Not that the stranger’s impression of him was his main concern right now, but still. Passing out and being carried around by a mysterious hot guy wasn’t exactly a dream come true. Not that he had aimed to impress the stranger anyway. Nope. Guys like him were usually straight, and anyway, he was much too old and completely out of Noah’s league anyway. And even if he weren’t, he had learned by now that the mysterious and slightly dangerous bad boy type usually only meant trouble anyway. But still, he also had no desire to make a complete fool out of himself by appearing to be some kind of damsel in distress. Not to anyone, and particularly not to dark, hot and scary strangers who just killed at least ten weird monsters all by himself using an old fashioned sword…. But no. That didn’t happen anyway. Not really. Right? Noah shook his head slightly and tried to focus on the surroundings as he faded in and out of consciousness. He saw grass, woods, a lake in the distance as well as several cabins and houses strewn out across the fields they walked across. The cool evening air smelled vaguely of strawberries for some reason, which mixed oddly with the sickening scent of sweat and blood in Noah’s nose and the way hot dark and scary smelled like musky spices and a little bit like leather and tar.

 

In the distance, he could make out the contours of something that looked like a giant statue. It might have been the same statue that they had appeared at after rolling out of the shadows. At that point, he had been much too confused to even consider how  _ big  _ that thing was… 

 

Dark, hot and scary still hadn’t said one single word, and Noah couldn’t make himself ask questions either. He was too tired to form a sentence after running and running from that herd (flock?) of monsters (or whatever that had been) and too scared of the potential answers to dare ask anyway. 

 

Instead, he tried to make out some details in his rescuer’s face, without getting caught staring. The guy had shoulder length, black hair, most of which was tied into a messy ponytail at the back of his head, but some strands of the shorter bangs kept falling into his pale face, making him blow upwards to get them out of his eyes since his hands were full of Noah at the moment. He was probably about medium height and not too buff, but his body felt like it was comprised of nothing but lean muscle and he was obviously quite strong from what Noah had seen. He had a really beautiful face with classic, delicate features, which had an almost androgynous look to them with pouty pink lips. That fact didn’t make him look the least bit less scary though. His stern expression seemed to be set in a permanent scowl and he had a clear don’t-fuck-with-me air about him that didn’t originate only from his completely black outfit and military boots. No, this was the kind of guy who would probably look scary in a hawaiian shirt as well… Noah didn’t know what it was… The tattoos sticking out under his leather jacket? The pale skin and black hair? The eyes? Yeah, that was it. He had big, almond shaped eyes that would have made him look like a cute manga character except for the fact that they were like endless pools of darkness. Did he even have pupils? Noah had only met his gaze briefly, but he had shuddered and looked away quickly, like he would otherwise be sucked into a black hole and never emerge again. A brief thought that he should probably be scared crossed Noah’s mind. Who were these people and what did they want from him? But then again, dark, hot and scary  _ had _ just saved his life.  _ Things could definitely be worse _ , the thought, and then he passed out. 

 

Noah didn’t know how much time had passed when he came to it again, but it was still day outside. And judging from dark, hot and scary standing by his bed in the same blood stenched outfit as before, it was the same day. Or the guy never changed clothes… Noah was lying on a hard bed in some kind of room that smelled like in a hospital. He tried to glance around without drawing too much attention to himself in case he was in danger, but nobody seemed to notice him. His rescuer was evidently arguing with a blond, tall guy in scrubs and his soccer coach, who also seemed to have made it here. When Noah noticed the weird little man still had goat legs and horns sticking out of his head he wished he could just pass out again and wake up once this stupid nightmare was over.

 

“Why, thank you Nico for saving the day…” a deep voice with a hint of an accent said, evidently dripping with sarcasm. Noah assumed it was his mysterious rescuer, who stood in a defensive stance with his arms crossed and an odd expression somewhere between a smirk and a scowl on his lips.

 

“I’m not complaining about you saving coach Hedge and the kid Nico…” the blond doctor dude started to argue, but before he could continue coach Hede interrupted.

 

“Who said I needed saving? I had them right where I wanted them di Angelo…” he huffed which earned him a heavy eye roll from the dark guy before the blond continued.

 

“...anyways, I was just saying you are supposed to call for back-up in a situation like that. Or just shadow travel out of there… you are not supposed to risk your life by taking on a whole herd of…”

 

“I’m sorry that I didn’t exactly have time to ponder my options in the middle of an attack,  _ mom _ …” dark, hot and scary (who was probably called Nico di Angelo as far as Noah could piece together from the conversation) scowled again. “Besides, I’m fine… it was just a scratch…” 

 

“Don’t you get sassy with me Nico. As head medic I  _ am _ actually responsible for the safety of all campers, whether you like it or not…” 

 

“Yeah, whatever Solace… I’m hitting the showers…” Nico huffed and stomped out. 

 

Blond doctor dude, Solace, muttered something inaudible under his breath and turned to coach Hedge instead. The two of them started discussing Noah and the events of the day heatedly, still not noticing that he was awake. Noah closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep, too tired to be able to focus on the conversation. He did manage to pick up some random pieces of information though. Like the fact that it didn’t seem to be a coincidence that coach Hedge was sent to his school, no. He had been looking for Noah for some reason, but missing him as he was evidently “too old”, whatever that meant. Too old for what? He was more used to being too young, at least for all the things he wanted to do. Like drive a car, go to the really interesting movies, move far far away from the rotten hell hole where he grew up...

 

Not that he had been bullied growing up. Not really. But being a scrawny, short, queer kid living with a young, single mom in a religious small town, the only thing that had saved his ass from being kicked on a regular basis was that he was really good at soccer. And at lying… 

 

He passed out again, dreaming about goats playing soccer and scary guys with swords lurking in the shadows. When he woke up for the last time, he was pretty sure it was morning. He had evidently slept through the rest of yesterday and the whole night. Neither coach Hedge nor the blond doctor was anywhere to be seen, instead girl with pink hair wished him good morning, told him not to worry, and brought him some breakfast with a promise someone would explain everything to him once he had had something to eat and a shower. Noah was far too tired and confused still to argue, but internally he scoffed a bit and wondered what she meant by that?  _ Everything _ ? Like in, Life, Universe and Everything? He sure as hell hoped the answer wasn’t 42…. and that they at least would explain where he was and why.

 

Two hours later, Noah’s world had fallen apart and put itself back together again several times. He had indeed enjoyed a shower, a delicious meal and gratefully accepted a fresh change of clothes. But then everything that had resembled reality had stopped as he was introduced to a half-man-half-horse dude who tried to convince him that the old greek and roman gods still existed and that he, Noah, was in fact the son of one of them. Although he was supposed to have been claimed by said god a year ago, at thirteen, which seemed to upset the others at his new camp. To be honest, that was the least of his problems. His problem was obviously that he never woke up from this stupid dream…

 

It took a long conversation with a really nice girl named Piper, a tour around camp and several pinches to his arm for the truth to sink in. Piper managed to convince him that he was not dreaming, but to be fair, Noah had the feeling she would have been able to convince Donald Trump to crossdress and join the Pride parade. Nonetheless, he enjoyed her company and her stories about camp and the people there. She was, supposedly, a daughter of Aphrodite, and that Noah could believe. Even he could see that she was pretty, although she was a couple of years older, and he didn’t normally like girls that way. She seemed to be a fierce fighter too, and she had been a part of a Quest to save the world with some other so called demigods, along with coach Hedge and Nico di Angelo. Noah listened in awe and silently wondered how on earth he was supposed to keep up with these people. He gulped as he watched di Angelo, his dark, hot and scary rescuer from the day before, in an impressive sword fighting demonstration with some other guy at the arena. There were also some very athletic guys and girls climbing a wall covered in lava streams, as well as teenagers competing in sword fighting and archery on their tour. 

 

They stopped by the archery practice as Piper said she wanted to introduce him to Will Solace, who had been the healer who treated him the day before when he was unconscious. The archers were just finishing up when they got closer and as Piper called Will’s name, a tall, muscular blond drenched in sweat turned around and flashed them a ridiculously bright smile across the field.  _ Holy mother of dragons  _ Noah thought as his mouth fell open. He hadn’t seen much of this Will guy yesterday in his hazy half conscious state and  _ shit _ was he a sight. He was without competition the hottest guy Noah had ever seen with a shaving-cream-model face, wind swept blond curls, sun kissed skin full of freckles and the bluest eyes one could imagine. His face looked like it was permanently split in a megawatt grin, and his body…  _ Jesus Christ and all his disciples....  _ Noah gulped and heard Piper snicker next to him as he realized too late that he was staring, mouth still open. Noah snapped his mouth shut and felt his ears turn pink as he tried to think of something to say.  _ Damage control, McKay _ he thought and started to stutter some ridiculous excuse. 

 

“....eh...sorry… I didn´t mean to…”

 

“Don’t worry about it…” Piper laughed and nudged him in the side with her elbow. “If he didn’t want people to look he shouldn’t walk around dressed like that… I have a boyfriend myself, but gods dammit if that isn’t a pretty sight…” she sighed with a dreamy look in her eyes. 

 

“Yeah, but…. Eh…” Noah started to say, not really sure what he was getting at. _ I’m a guy…  _ seemed like a silly thing to say. Piper, however, seemed to read his mind.

 

“You’re worried someone might be offended you’re looking at another boy?” she asked knowingly, eyebrows raised “Don’t worry about that... most people at camp are really open minded. In some cabins, being straight is more of the exception actually…” she sniggered and Noah felt like a stone fell from his shoulders. One less thing to worry about. Perhaps he could fit in here after all…?

 

“Don’t get your hopes up with this one though, it’s a lost cause. Fortunately there are plenty of other options for you, I can introduce you to some cute single guys later… and girls if you swing both ways…” Piper promised with a sly smile.

 

“Ehr… thanks…” Noah cleared his throat, unable to process all that information at once. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes from the hot blond who was casually strolling in their direction. That guy would take some getting used to. Typical that he would be straight… Or taken? He realized Piper never specified why it was a lost cause… Well, he was too old for Noah anyway… but still… swoon...

 

“Although looking never hurts….” Piper said with an amused smile as she watched him stare. “Just don’t let di Angelo catch you…” she added under her breath and poked him in the side to snap him out of his haze.

 

“Hi Nico…” she called out with an innocent look on her face, and a meaning glare at Noah, as if she wanted to warn him, when Nico di Angelo walked past them, sword still swinging casually in his hand.

 

“Oh, hi Pipes… And glad to see you are up and about new kid…” Nico said with a casual nod at Noah before he hurried along. 

 

Noah was a bit too dazzled by the presence of the blond Adonis impersonation to be able to process what Piper had warned him about, but at least he managed to keep a reasonably straight face when he was officially introduced to Will Solace. He seemed like a really nice guy too, and quickly went into his doctor-mode and started interrogating Noah about how his injuries were healing. Later, when he lay in a temporary bunk in the Hermes cabin, he started thinking about it. He was happy to hear Piper say that being gay was more or less accepted at camp, but he still wondered what that meant? There were evidently some exceptions to this rule, and he really wanted to know more before outing himself to everybody. If a powerful demigod like Nico di Angelo was homophobic, wouldn’t that make it dangerous to let everybody know? He certainly didn’t want to be in  _ that _ guy’s bad books, at least not before knowing more… But still, he had to admit coming out would be a relief. It was a part of himself he had always had to hide back home, for pure survival reasons, and it was eating him up inside. All the times he had tried to laugh knowingly and nod in agreement when the guys on the team had been talking about some pretty girl had slowly chipped away at his self esteem. No, he had to come out, sooner or later, if he was going to stay here. It would just be nice to know who would be on his side and not… Would he make more enemies than di Angelo? And what would they do about it? Teasing and comments he could take, but he didn’t want to have to fear for his life and limbs…

 

Over the next couple of days, Noah slowly made some friends, and was happy when he was finally claimed on his second day at camp, by Hermes nonetheless, meaning that he could stay in the cabin he had started to see as his new home. He hadn’t talked to many people about his sexuality yet, but he came out to his half brother Connor when he found out Connor was bi. Noah was extremely happy to help him set a plan to ask a certain son of Aphrodite out in motion. Never before had he been able to talk to anyone about guys and now he could play wingman for his new older brother and friend. It was too good to be true. He hadn’t dared to talk to him about his fears about di Angelo finding out, or ask whoever else could be judgemental. Instead, he tried to avoid both di Angelo as much as he could. His fears were confirmed when Connor came back to the cabin that night, giddy with happiness….

 

“He agreed to go out with me tomorrow…” he sighed happily and grinned like an idiot.

 

“Wow, that’s great man… I told you he would!” Noah exclaimed, happy for his newfound friend. 

 

“Just don’t tell anyone where we’re going, ok? Especially keep di Angelo and Solace far from us if you can, ok? I don’t want us to end up in the canoe lake on our first date…” he said with a threatening glare at Noah. 

 

Noah cringed a bit at this information - he just couldn’t believe that Will Solace of all people would be a bully. Or that he would be judgemental at all really, he seemed so nice… Well, there was nothing much to do about that anyway, and he just promised to keep the details about their date a secret for now. He wanted to ask Connor about it, but he didn’t want to ruin his mood by talking about homophobic pricks when he was so happy… and he didn’t seem too concerned anyway, so Noah shouldn’t project his own fears of rejection on Connor if he didn’t care. In fact, he was a bit jealous that he could be so casual about it…

 

\---

 

For some reason, it seemed like Noah constantly kept running into both di Angelo and Solace the next day, almost as if they knew he was trying to avoid them. Was he being paranoid, or were they actually trying to corner him? He managed to dodge being ambushed almost the whole day though; luckily, he was both quick and sneaky. Or, as he had learned, it had probably more to do with his heritage and less with luck. He started to relax just a little bit too soon, when he had seen Connor and his date sneak away during dinner. He made his way out of the dining pavilion to get some rest all by himself before the campfire, when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He whirled around and found himself staring into a pair of sea green eyes, belonging to a tall, older demigod Noah had never met and who was accompanied by a smirking Nico di Angelo. 

 

“Hey, Noah, right? I don’t believe we have met... I’m Percy Jackson, an old friend of Nico’s…” he introduced himself and Noah gulped. Percy was something of a legend at camp, and now he was evidently back visiting over the weekend. Noah would have been really honored to meet him, were it not for the situation he found himself in right now...

 

“Yeah... I’m Noah McKay… son of Hermes… Nice to meet you and all...” Noah croaked, wishing he had thought of something interesting to say, facing two of the most respected and feared demigods alive. Percy seemed cool though, he had a bit of a goofy grin, and Noah knew he was friends with Piper which should mean he was one of the good guys, right? Although he was evidently also friends with di Angelo, whom Noah had started to fear a bit. 

 

“Well, I’d better head over to my cabin….” Noah tried to make for a quick escape, but Jackson didn’t lessen the grip on his shoulder.

 

“Not so fast…” di Angelo smirked again “We were actually wondering if you might have seen Connor?” he said, not even trying to look innocent. 

 

“Nope, not seen him since before dinner…” Noah answered a bit too quickly.

 

“Hm… well, we have heard some rumors about him and a certain son of Aphrodite… and a supposed date tonight...” Jackson continued with an evil grin. Although, to be fair, it might have been more of a mischievous grin. He didn’t look mad… but still. Why couldn’t these people just let Connor be?

 

“So… what is it to you?” Noah said, perhaps coming out a bit more angry and less casual than he had meant to.

 

“Well, it seems Connor is under the impression he can get through this supposed date without us finding out…” Jackson said with mock thoughtfulness.

 

“...and without getting himself soaked…or hurt...” di Angelo added.

 

“...or otherwise humiliated…” Percy nodded.

 

“...and we simply can’t have that now, can we?” di Angelo finished, standing in Noah’s way with his arms crossed.

 

“Look, can’t you just leave him alone….” Noah pleaded.

 

“Nope, can’t do that I’m afraid…” Nico shook his head, still smirking.

 

Noah weighed his options. Running away seemed futile. The odds of convincing them he didn’t know what they were talking about didn’t seem too good either. Noah was starting to get really annoyed at this whole situation. No, more like angry, actually. These were supposed to be heroes. The good guys. The people everyone else were looking up to. And it just provoked the Hades out of him that they had to be mean, judgemental pricks. He had always thought that bullies were supposed to be insecure and suffer from childhood trauma… weren’t heroes supposed to be nice to people? Against his better judgement, his brain decided to let them know what he thought about people like them… In retrospect, it must have looked rather funny; this scrawny, short demigod lashing out at two older, bigger and incredibly powerful heroes, unarmed and alone in the middle of a field with nowhere to hide… But his temper had always betrayed him and he seemed to lack a bit of a brain-to-mouth filter when he was upset.

 

“Look, I don’t care what you guys think about them, but I think you should leave them alone. Your behavior is...is... despicable… and homophobia is really so old fashioned… you are supposed to be heroes, you should know better than…” Noah started ranting, feeling his ears burn and his face heat as he was building up his anger, before di Angelo held up a hand to stop him and stared at him incredulously.

 

“You were saying...what? You think we’re going after Connor for dating a guy…?” Jackson shook his head in disbelief, like it was the strangest thing he ever heard.

 

“Eeh, well… yeah? Weren’t you?” Noah asked plainly.

 

“No, stupid. We don’t care if he dates a guy, a girl, a nymph or a whole harem of sirens… This is all about revenge kid… If you knew what Connor has put us through…” Jackson explained “Like the time he let loose a swarm of bees on my date in the strawberry fields with Annabeth…”

 

“Or when he crashed my first date and threw us in the canoe lake… In February! And locked us out of our cabins when we came back to get fresh clothes…” Nico muttered.

 

“Or when he took pictures of Jay and Pipes when they… ehrm, let’s not even talk about that…” Jackson added looking a bit flushed. 

 

“We could go on all night if you want to… bottom line is: Connor deserves what’s coming for him… and Mitch should have known better than to go out with him in the first place if he doesn’t want to be a victim of revenge for all of Connor’s old pranks….” di Angelo smirked.

 

Noah didn’t know what to think… they really didn’t seem concerned about the nature of the relationship… and it wasn’t exactly a secret that Connor was the worst prankster at camp, so he didn’t have a hard time to believe that he had been responsible for those pranks. 

 

“But… but… I thought you were… well… a bit judgemental about those things…” Noah muttered, a bit embarrassed. 

 

“Who is judgemental? About what things?” Nico asked, scratching his head, looking genuinely confused…

 

“Well, I heard that you don’t approve of queer people…” Noah said, trying to sound more confident than he felt, while looking accusingly at Nico.

 

Both of the older demigods froze and went really quiet. Noah could almost feel the temperature dropping around him, as the confused expression on Nico’s face was replaced with something that looked like annoyance. Meanwhile, Percy Jackson unfroze and started laughing hysterically, which didn’t do much to improve di Angelo’s mood, apparently.

 

“Oh, gods… that’s hilarious...” he huffed between laughing so hard he could barely breathe...

 

“Is that supposed to be funny?” Nico snapped, folding his arms across his chest and flashing Noah his famous death glare. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in… like ever…. Who  _ the actual Hades _ told you that?” 

 

“Well… It was Piper who said…” Noah started uncertainty, while trying to remember what exactly Piper had said.

 

“What the effing…? No way… Pipes would never joke about something like that…” Nico shook his head and stared at Noah with narrowed eyes like he didn’t believe one word of it.

 

“Hysterical... This must be some epic misunderstanding…” Percy shook his head “So, what exactly happened and what, exactly, did she say?” he demanded.

 

“Eeehrm… she might have caught me staring at this guy… and when I got embarrassed she assured me that most people at camp were open minded and I was fine... as long as di Angelo didn’t catch me…” he explained. “And that last part was a direct quote, I swear…”

 

Both Nico and Percy were quiet for a long time, and Noah could almost see the wheels turning in their brains as they tried to figure this out. Percy seemed to do the math quickest and burst out laughing hysterically again, while Nico still looked confused.

 

“Well, who were you staring at…? He wouldn’t happen to be tall, blond and tan with an offending amount of freckles…?” he asked, once he had stopped laughing enough to form words again. 

 

“Eehh… so what if it was…?” Noah asked, feeling his ears turn pink.

 

“Oh, gods... “ was all Percy managed to squeeze out while actually rolling around on the grass laughing.

 

“Shut up Jackson…” Nico snapped, and to Noah’s astonishment he was blushing a deep shade of crimson.

 

“Oh, you had it coming to you di Angelo… that’s what happens when you’re being a possessive jackass.” Percy teased his friend.

 

“I am not a possessive jackass…” 

 

“You are soooo…I remember when you sent a ghost after that poor guy who…” Percy started

 

“Well,  _ he _ was asking for it… he did more than stare, mind you…” Nico interrupted him, clearly not wanting that story retold “Anyway, I’m not possessive, I’m just…just...”

 

“A jealous prick…?” Percy offered.

 

“Drop it Jackson, you just love it when guys are drooling over Annabeth, do you?” Nico snapped.

 

“I don’t know… As long as they are only looking I guess I would be more proud than jealous?”

 

“Who’s being jealous?” 

 

All three demigods froze as the chipper voice of Will Solace came from behind them.  _ Oh gods, where did he come from…  _ Noah thought, desperately wanting to sink through a hole in the ground. Luckily, by the look on the glare Nico sent his old friend, Percy wouldn’t dare retell this story anytime soon.

 

“Nobody…” Nico snapped. 

 

“Your boyfriend, as usual…” Percy said simultaneously, earning him another death glare.

 

_ “I am not jealous… _ ” Nico hissed.

 

“Oh, I think you’re cute when you’re being all possessive darlin…” Will said innocently and flashed Nico a dazzling smile before he kissed him on his still cherry pink cheek.

 

“Bite me Solace…” Nico snapped, obviously unimpressed by his - evidently boyfriend’s - charms.

 

“Hm, maybe later sunshine… Right now I happen to have a lead on where Connor and Mitch are hiding and people are starting to line up to get revenge, so if you guys want in, I would suggest you drop this little argument and come along…” 

 

Noah had just about started to celebrate the fact that they seemed to have forgotten about him and was planning his retreat back to his cabin, where he would hide forever and die of shame, when Nico turned around and pinned him down with his pitch black stare.

 

“And you… Not. One. Word. I’ll deal with you later. And with Piper...” he said through gritted teeth, but somehow Noah didn’t feel all too scared or upset. Perhaps it was his flushing face that took the edge off the scary look? Or the shadow of a smile that was tugging at the corners of his mouth although he tried to glare? Or the fact that Noah realized he deserved it, being a judgemental prick himself when he thought it more likely that “a guy like that” would be straight and homophobic before he could even imagine the other, in hindsight more obvious, reason for Piper’s statement. 

 

When he got into bed that night, Noah pondered the two life lessons he had learned that day. The first was never to assume things about other people, and it left him a bit more humble. The second life lesson was that if you prank enough people, they  _ will _ hunt you down sooner or later for revenge… Although Connor didn’t seem too upset about his interrupted date as he came back dripping all over the cabin, sporting a brand new hair color too. 

 

“At least I look good in pink…” Connor stated proudly. “You should have seen di Angelo when we coloured all his clothes yellow so he would match Will’s sunny smile… He wouldn’t come out of his cabin for a week...”

  
_ This demigod thing isn’t that bad… _ was the last thing Noah thought before he fell asleep, finally having found a place where he felt like he was fitting in. 


End file.
